


The Forgotten Children

by Rainey_Arlet



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Post-Descendants 3, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23354254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainey_Arlet/pseuds/Rainey_Arlet
Summary: As the barrier is finally torn down, Ben sees the children from the Isle and realizes that Auradon isn’t as perfect as he thought it to be.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 109





	The Forgotten Children

  
The first thing Ben notices about the kids from the Isle is that they’re all wearing clothes that don’t look like clothes.

It isn’t anything about wealth. Ben isn’t judgmental. He knows that it’s wrong to judge people on the price of their clothing. But seeing the Isle kids in their tattered rags and mis-fitting leathers next to the Auradon kids in their silk dresses and fitted blazers, Ben can’t help but see the contrast. He can’t help but see how far-off that uncrossable stretch of water has made the island and the mainland, how much the two worlds have been torn apart. Just by looking at the shoes a child is wearing, Ben can tell whether they’ve been raised in the wealthy, warm walls of Auradon; or within the harsh, unescapable barrier of the Isle.

Another thing Ben notices is how small the Isle kids are. And by _small_ , he doesn’t mean that they’re just a little short like Jane or a bit petite like Audrey. No, these children look gaunt and rawboned and terribly spindly, some almost skeletal. They remind him of Carlos when he first met him; small and skinny, with wrists that looked ready to snap; huge, dark doe eyes that held an expression of hunger and mournfulness. He thinks about that day when Carlos casually told him that he’d never been well-fed before. _It’s normal in the Isle, for kids to be underfed_. Carlos had said. _I_ _just had it worse than the others. My mother starved me a lot._ Then he shrugged at Ben’s shocked face and popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth, as if talking about his mother starving him was as normal as talking about the weather.

Eyeing the new kids from the Isle, Ben can see their telltale sunken cheeks and protruding cheek-bones; signs that they’re undernourished, signs that their parents don’t care too much, signs that they’ve never had enough food. He knows that people on the Isle have always lived off of Auradon’s leftovers, but now he wishes that he had found out sooner. Seeing the children clad in huge old leather and rag shirts that barely fit their narrow, angular shoulders, Ben feels a throbbing pain in his chest; the pain he felt when he'd first heard of Mal and Jay and Evie and Carlos’s childhoods; he can feel it echoing through his heart again.

Speaking of Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos, Ben notices that the four VKs look strangely uncomfortable, standing by themselves in a corner of the garden.

They were overjoyed when the barrier had been broken. Ecstatic, euphoric, enraptured. But now, Ben notices that they look awkward, unnerved; anxious, even. Their gazes shift uneasily from the Auradon Prep students to the Isle kids, like they’re afraid of meeting anyone’s eyes. Mal, who's standing stiffly next to Evie, has her purple hair hanging down her face and her green eyes fixed on the ground, occasionally muttering something quietly to her friends. Evie fiddles with her frilled skirts and bites her bottom lip, like she wants to say something but can’t quite find the words. Wringing her soft white hands, her eyes dart through the crowds of people around her, silent and agitated. Jay has an arm thrown around Carlos and a hand stuck in his pocket, grinning uneasily, just like he always does when he can’t deal with the tension. For once, the handsome young man isn't oozing confidence; his normally mischievous eyes are silvery and out of focus, and he looks unsure of what to do. Stuck close to the others, Carlos has Dude in his arms, his face half-hidden in the mutt's fluffy caramel fur, looking smaller and younger than ever.

When they catch him staring at them, and look up to meet his eyes, Ben recognizes the look splashed on their faces; the emotion that’s putting them at such discomfort and unease. It's an emotion that he's all too familiar with, a horrid, nagging feeling that haunted him after his friends had risked themselves to save him from the clutches of pirates, all those months ago.

_Guilt_.

The VKs feel _guilty_.

Seeing the kids fresh off the Isle, they feel guilty. They feel guilty that they’ve spent an entire year in Auradon, safe and away from the horrors of their homeland, when the kids were still stuck on the Isle. They feel guilty that the other children are finally being freed from the prison that they didn’t deserve to be stuck in, when they themselves had been released a whole year in advance. They feel guilty because they are wearing handmade exquisite dresses and fancy suits, while the other children are wearing threadbare rags and faded leather; trademarks of the Isle, evidence of poverty. Even though they have personally contributed to this program to let the kids off the Isle, and even though none of this is their fault, the VKs still feel guilty. They feel guilty because they have lived a year in wealth and good well-being, while the other children from their homeland have lived in destitution and danger.

Gazing at the citizens of Auradon, who are chattering and partying for all its worth, Ben wonders if they feel guilty about having sent nothing but their leftovers to these starving children.

It isn't long before Ben spots his mother and father, who are standing near the Beast statue in their gold-studded gown and suit; being swarmed by a group of small, dirty children from the Isle. He can hear the kids crying and laughing and thanking them, thanking them for giving them a _second chance_ , thanking them for letting them escape from that _prison_. He can hear the innocent children begging for pardon, begging for forgiveness for their parents’ crimes; crimes they have never committed; feverishly promising to be _good_ , _just like the Aurodonians_.

Glimpsing the tears splashing down the children’s gaunt faces, Ben wonders if his mother and father feel guilty at all; having punished these sweet children for their parents’ crimes. He wonders if they think of themselves as blameworthy, having imprisoned these kids for life in a tiny island with an unbreakable barrier. He wonders if his parents feel responsible for anything; for their poverty, for their malnourishment, for their lost childhoods.

Watching his father place a hand on a small boy’s head, ruffling his hair with a mildly uncomfortable smile, Ben wonders if his parents regret their decision from twenty years ago; if they feel sorry for these children. He wonders if they feel sorry for the countless innocent souls who are just like Mal and Jay and Evie and Carlos; the children who were forgotten by the rest of world, the children who have fought for survival all their lives, the children who have been labeled as _villains_ who need to earn a _second chance_.

He watches his parents walk away from the Isle kids, back into the doors of their humongous castle. And it’s just the way his father wipes his hand off with a handkerchief; the very hand he used to ruffle the Isle boy's hair; that makes Ben question, for the very first time, if his parents are truly _good_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback and criticism much appreciated.


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